1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an outdoor barbeque grill (OBG) that includes a cooking surface, one or more burners and a source of fuel which can be, for example, either a portable container of propane or a conduit connected to a source of fuel utilized in a home or business. An oven is located within the grill housing.
2. Description of Related Art
Drippings from food being cooked on an outdoor grill can create problems. First the drippings can clog the burner outlets so as to interfere with proper combustion. Secondly, the drippings can cause flare ups by coming into contact with the burners. Flare ups can burn the food being barbequed and may have adverse health consequences.
One prior solution is to install covers over the burners to stop the drippings from direct contact with the burners; however the covers themselves can become hot enough to cause the drippings to ignite. Another approach is to use infrared heating. In this approach a surface is heated to the point of emitting infrared radiation which cooks the food. Yet another approach is to use a perforated plate between the cooking surface and the burner. These approaches are still subject to flare ups and utilize more energy because the intermediate surface needs to be heated.
Yet another approach has been tried involving indirect heat wherein the burners are not located directly below the cooking surface. Heated air and combustion gas are directed to the cooking surface. Consequently drippings do not fall on the burners. However, these indirect heating designs have not achieved commercial acceptance due to design failure. For example, an indirect heating unit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,359.
However, the dripping collection area 100 is awkward to clean and requires some sort of a drain mechanism as shown in FIG. 5. Additionally cold air is drawn in through passages 70 which may create cool spots on the cooking surface and reduces the heating efficiency of the unit.